Drugs: US, Nigerian agents arrest three

Posted by admin Headlines, NDLEA (Anti-Drug Agency) Wednesday, January 5th, 2011

United States and Nigerian anti-narcotics agents have arrested three persons for alleged drug trafficking in separate operations in Lagos and Detriot, US.

US federal authorities said a Nigerian woman, Sherifat Lamidi, was arrested in Detroit after she admitted swallowing 91 pellets of heroin on an international flight from Nigeria, the Associated Press reports.

The Department of Homeland Security said on Wednesday that Lamidi was paid to deliver the drugs to the US. She passed the pellets out of her body at a hospital after she was stopped on Sunday at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

According to a court filing, Lamidi told agents that it was her second trip to the US as a drug trafficker. She is in custody on drug charges and awaited a detention hearing on Wednesday (yesterday).

A US federal lawyer, Jon Epstein, who was assigned to represent her, declined to comment on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested a US-bound couple in possession of 2.28kg of heroin at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

A statement by the NDLEA Airport Commander, Alhaji Hamza Umar, on Wednesday said the couple was arrested recently during routine screening of passengers on Delta Airlines to the US.

“This is the first time both husband and wife will test positive to drug ingestion,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted Umar as saying.

The commander said preliminary investigation had shown that the couple specialised in trafficking narcotics.

“Findings also revealed that they ingested the drugs by the roadside at Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos before heading straight to the airport.

“Authorities are making efforts to ascertain their level of involvement and other associates. Any marriage built on the platform of drug trafficking will not work,” Umar added.

The case, he said, was still under investigation and they would be charged to court soon.

-Punchwp_posts